Lacrosse Has A Brand New Fan
Yep, I have seen the light and been converted thanks to The Fighting Irish...
Indulge me here for a minute if you will.
I was flicking through the channels the other night - as you do - trying frantically to find something to watch to help soothe the pain of three iconic, truly breathtaking all-time shows coming to an end.
Yes, I’m talking about Succession, Ted Lasso & Barry.
If you haven’t watched the latter by the way, because I feel that Barry has probably slipped under the radar somewhat, you must immediately. Like, literally stop whatever it is you are doing and dive right in now.
You will not regret it. It is truly fantastic and you’ll have so much fun navigating all four seasons. Each episode is also a very manageable 30 or so minutes for those of you with short attention spans (wait, isn’t that all of us now?!)
Anyway, I digress. In the midst of what seemed to be a hopeless search - all these streaming devices and yet it is still a struggle to find something good to watch - I stumbled across the full replay of the 2023 NCAA Men’s Lacrosse National Championship game.
It turns out I struck gold.
Quite literally (see what I did there, Notre Dame fans? No? Oh, nevermind).
Now, it is Sunday so it feels apt to make a pretty glaring confession.
I haven’t really dipped my toe in the lacrosse pool up until this point.
Yes, shocking I know.
It is just a sport that has managed to do a good job of evading my attention which is pretty hard to do given that I’ll watch anything remotely connected to sports.
Except soccer. And Rugby. Oh and cricket. (Yes, that was a jab aimed at those reading in my home country of England. Sorry not sorry).
But you are reading the thoughts of a guy who will go out and specifically buy beers and snacks and waste hours watching the Hot Dog Eating Contest every single July 4 without fail.
Yep, I’m that guy.
I’m doing it again. I’m going off on a winding, never-ending tangent which is something I tend to do far more often than I care to admit. Allow me to get to the point of this entire article.
With a few hours of downtime and not in the mood to start another series for it to break my heart again by ending (those rude sons of a bitch), I decided to watch Notre Dame and Duke do battle a day or two after the fact while not aware of the outcome.
It turned out to be a quality few hours well spent.
Returning to my previous admission of having not really flirted with the sport of Lacrosse before, I am at least aware of the basics and I’m a huge college sports guy so I was all set.
It certainly helped not knowing who won going in, but I was just blown away by how captivated and locked in I was from the very start. The very nature of the sport had me hooked instantly and I very quickly wished I was amongst the 30,462 fans present at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia to witness in person The Fighting Irish clinch their first National Championship in program history.
Notre Dame beat Duke 13-9 with the No. 3 seed toppling the No. 1 seed and the ACC Champions. I would call that a mini upset but I don’t want to get shouted at for my inferior Lacrosse knowledge.
Okay, I will admit that at times I didn’t have a clue what on God’s Green Earth was happening, but that only added to my fun. The action on the field resembled unorganized chaos at times and I did get slightly confused by the fact that players could roam wherever they damn pleased. Including behind the goal. Although, that is pretty similar to Ice Hockey I guess.
I didn’t look at my phone for a good 40 minutes plus, so that’s always a good sign. I just couldn’t believe I’ve never really given this sport a chance before.
It was just non-stop action and that’s normally a pretty good calling card when it comes to trying out a new sport for the first time. The game itself had everything you could wish for, including some exceptional saves, including by Notre Dame’s Liam Entenmann who made a slew of insane stops on his way to being crowned the 2023 Men’s Lacrosse Championship Most Outstanding Player, a boatload of goals, and some really pleasing-on-the-eye passing sequences.
Oh, and some roughness which we can all get behind.
I was also very, very amused and, at times, distracted by the helmets the players wore. I mean, the sparkling gold domes sported by the Notre Dame squad really stood out, but they did look like a cross between the Green Goblin from Spider Man and a freaking Power Ranger.
Kinda as if the Green Goblin and a Power Ranger met and created a baby helmet. Okay, now that’s a freaky image I didn’t need lodged in my brain.
Moving swiftly on.
But, all told, my first experience of watching a lacrosse game of any kind was a resounding success and I’m a little bit hooked. The sport has grabbed me with its tentacles and I don’t want it to let go anytime soon.
College lacrosse has now been added to my stable of must-watch sports, and I already am very, very pumped to watch more lacrosse in the not too distant future.
I’m just glad I was searching for something to watch that night.
Oh, and lacrosse diehards, I promise I will actually try and sound like I know what I’m talking about next time I write about your sport.
Because I will. You’re now looking at lacrosse’s newest fan.
